Letters to the Editor

Abstract

The following is the abstract of the article discussed in the subsequent letter: Venegas, José G., R. Scott Harris, and Brett A. Simon. A comprehensive equation for the pulmonary pressure-volume curve. J. Appl. Physiol. 84(1): 389–395, 1998.—Quantification of pulmonary pressure-volume (P-V) curves is often limited to calculation of specific compliance at a given pressure or the recoil pressure (P) at a given volume (V). These parameters can be substantially different depending on the arbitrary pressure or volume used in the comparison and may lead to erroneous conclusions. We evaluated a sigmoidal equation of the form, V = a + b[1 +  e −(P− c)/ d ]−1, for its ability to characterize lung and respiratory system P-V curves obtained under a variety of conditions including normal and hypocapnic pneumoconstricted dog lungs ( n = 9), oleic acid-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome ( n = 2), and mechanically ventilated patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome ( n = 10). In this equation, a corresponds to the V of a lower asymptote, b to the V difference between upper and lower asymptotes, c to the P at the true inflection point of the curve, and d to a width parameter proportional to the P range within which most of the V change occurs. The equation fitted equally well inflation and deflation limbs of P-V curves with a mean goodness-of-fit coefficient ( R 2) of 0.997 ± 0.02 (SD). When the data from all analyzed P-V curves were normalized by the best-fit parameters and plotted as (V −  a)/ b vs. (P −  c)/ d, they collapsed into a single and tight relationship ( R 2 = 0.997). These results demonstrate that this sigmoidal equation can fit with excellent precision inflation and deflation P-V curves of normal lungs and of lungs with alveolar derecruitment and/or a region of gas trapping while yielding robust and physiologically useful parameters.